A community workshop was commenced on 6 December 2024 at Sarlahi district, an activity under the project ‘Customized Weather and Climate Information System for Climate-Resilient Agricultural System in Nepal’ supported by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)-Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). The project has recently developed an Application Programming Interface (API), which is designed to disseminate location-specific customized 3-day weather forecasts to farmers through mobile SMS and internet-based information dissemination mechanisms, automatically. The major objective of the event was to share information about the developed API website for weather forecasts among local farmers of the project locations from Sarlahi, Bhojpur, and Lamjung districts. The workshop emphasized the need for a weather forecast information system to help farmer communities better plan and manage weather-related risks to adapt agricultural practices to unpredictable weather conditions and maximize agricultural productivity.
The Small Earth Nepal (SEN), a project proponent, provided technical support during the workshop organized by Risk Management Solutions Inc. (RMSI) with the collaborative support of the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology (DHM). The workshop was attended by 29 participants in total including local farmers groups, local government representatives of Ramprasad Rai Rural Municipality (Bhojpur) and Rainas Municipality (Lamjung), Agriculture Knowledge Centre of Sarlahi district and Agriculture Cooperative (Ashtavinayak Agricultural Cooperative Limited). The majority of participants (21) were local farmers from project locations.
In the workshop, Dr. Uttam Singh, General Manager, RMSI provided a project brief and Mr. Shivang Bhatnagar, an Assistant Technical Specialist, RMSI briefed the working mechanism of API including its practical demonstration showcasing its functionality and use. The workshop was successful in enhancing awareness of the local farmers on the impact of climate change and variabilities on the agricultural system and also helped in developing local farmers’ capacities to utilize the weather forecast information in becoming more climate resilient. Mr. Saroj Kanta Adhikari, chair of the event and a former head of Agriculture Information And Training Center (AITC), opined that the program was fruitful in sharing information about API and emphasized need of further technical support to the farmers that will enable them to use applications wisely for climate resilient agriculture.
